CHAPTER XII
CHUNKY AND THE LITTLE GIRL
Chunky liked it very much in the park menagerie. He could do almost as he pleased. There was water always ready for him to swim in, and on cold days in winter it was made warm for him.
Chunky had all he wanted to eat, and, though it was not quite the same as he had had in the jungle, it was very nice and good for him. He could not go down to the bottom of his tank and dig up grass or lily roots, but one can’t have everything.
Though it had been quite jolly in the circus, Chunky liked it rather better in the park menagerie. For he did not have to be carted from city to city each night. The park stayed in one place, and the circus moved about nearly every day.
Nor was Chunky lonesome in the park, though there were not so many animals near him as there had been in the circus. But across from him were the elephants, in great big cages with iron bars in front, and next to him was a rhinoceros, almost like the one in the circus.
Chunky made friends with these animals, and often, even when crowds came in to see them, he and his friends could talk together in their own way.
Don, the runaway dog, about whom a book has been written, often came to the park, and he never failed to pay a visit to Chunky, slipping in between the bars of the hippo’s cage, and lying down on a pile of hay to talk.
“Did you ever live in the jungle?” asked Chunky of Don one day.